How Obama CAN Win: "Plan 9 From Outta Chicago!"

Ed Wood: And cut! Print. We're moving on. That was perfect.

Producer: Perfect?! Mr. Wood, do you know ANYTHING about the art of film production?

Ed Wood: Well, I like to think so.

Producer: That cardboard headstone tipped over! This graveyard is obviously phony!

Ed Wood: Nobody will ever notice that. Filmmaking is not about the tiny details. It's about the big picture.

Producer: The big picture?!

Ed Wood: Yes.

Producer: Then how 'bout when the policemen arrived in daylight, but now it's suddenly night?

Ed Wood: What do you know? Haven't you heard of SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF?

- Sequence depicting the shooting of the 1959 'film' "Plan 9 From Outer Space" in the 1994 Tim Burton film "Ed Wood"

"Beam Me Up Rezko!"

Suggested Reading

• Bandwagon Effect
• Collective Effervescence
• Crowd Psychology
• Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds
• Fads and Trends
• Forer Effect
• Group Behaviour
• Groupthink
• Herd Behavior
• Hysteria
• Pollyanna Principle
• Sheeple
• Stock market bubbles

Comments

[Lon]

Have you joined the writer's strike that you are now peddling repeats? It is rather early for Clinton supporters to have run out of things to say. If you are really stuck you could try making a positive case for why Clinton would be a better candidate than Obama. The fact that Obama has a small fraction of the potential scandal factor that the Clintons do doesn't seem to cut it.

Maybe you could explain how it is a bonus that she supported the war in Iraq and so, like Kerry before her, is innoculated against charges of being weak on terror.

[SteveRoach]

Obama is not named in the Rezko court document. But a source familiar with the case confirmed that Obama is the unnamed “political candidate” referred to in a section of the document that accuses Rezko of orchestrating a scheme in which a firm hired to handle state teacher pension investments first had to pay $250,000 in “sham” finder’s fees. From that money, $10,000 was donated to Obama’s successful run for the Senate in the name of a Rezko business associate, according to the court filing and the source.

Rezko, who was part of Obama’s senatorial finance committee, also is accused of directing “at least one other individual” to donate money to Obama and then reimbursing that individual — in possible violation of federal election law.

Bill Burton, Obama's press secretary for Obama's presidential campaign, said in a written statement. "It was done in the interests of the people in the community who have benefited from the project."

[VeggieVeal]

By failing to rally around Edwards, the Dems have set themselves up with only a charlatan and a banshee to choose from. Does it now make a difference whom you pick?

[Doofus]

Martin will only be happy when

we elect Tony Blair. Failing that,

he'll settle for another amusing

romp with BJ Clinton & spouse.

=========MARTIN RESPONDS==========

Bingo! See: "Obama Could Be Our Tony Blair!"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-lewis/obama-could-be-our-tony-b_b_82094.html

[factanonverba]

One more example is the work of Elias Canetti, the Bulgarian-born German and winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize for Literature. His seminal work is "Crowds and Power." That book should be sent to every Obama supporter in the land.

Here's a quote from Elias Canetti relevant today: "Every decision is liberating, even if it leads to disaster. Otherwise, why do so many people walk upright and with open eyes into their misfortune?"

http://codexpression.blogspot.com/2007/09/crowds-and-power-elias-canetti.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elias_Canetti

[factanonverba]

Here's one you left out: The Barnum Effect. This is from a blog I contribute to:

"He is the Barnum Effect candidate. If you're not familiar with the Barnum Effect, it is the principle behind astrology and horoscopes. Couch things in general enough terms and they can apply to anyone. You see meaning because you want to see meaning not because there is any actual meaning there. Senator Obama talks of "hope" "unity" and "change". Well who doesn't want that? We all do and hence his appeal to independents and to a younger generation that has not been tempered by the experience of everything the progressive left has endured since 1968."

The other two things BT Barnum is known for is a circus and the line that "there is a sucker born every minute." Both apt descriptions of the Obama campaign.

http://skepdic.com/barnum.html
http://atheism.about.com/od/logicalflawsinreasoning/a/barnum.htm

[factanonverba]

Thank you because I am tired of fighting this battle alone. It is not so much Obama that is the problem, though he clearly has flaws that I think would be fatal in a general election but his supporters who I describe as cult. And I take credit for that term as I first wrote about the resemblance a few months ago on my blog. I got hate mail like you wouldn't believe and that only reinforces my views.

Obama supporters are in denial, the man might as well as be the second coming of Christ. Some say he is too good to be true. Generally I've found when something is to good to be true, there is a catch. At first I thought Obama naive but now I think him Nixonian to be quite honest. I don't think the Clintons are saints but the Clintons never used lawyers to obliterate their opponents and strike them from the ballot. Obama did it to his own political mentor, Alice Palmer and three others. It's hard to run as an unity candidate when you disembowel the opposition. He is a master at spreading false rumors and using innuendo to break opponents. Ask Jack Ryan.

And Obama supporters can't even bring themselves to acknowledge the obvious and that's that he is clearly not as progressive as Clinton and far cry from John Edwards. On policy, Clinton is much closer to Edwards than Obama. And then there is the lack of experience, especially on foreign policy. His views on Pakistan could set off a wider regional war. And then Obama supporters believe him untainted by special interests but the coal and nuclear industry certainly think otherwise. I don't deny that Clinton is too but at least Clinton supporters don't rage against machine while Obama's do and yet fail to realize that he is no different than she. It is only matter that his support comes from a different subset.

[jstock]

Again with the patronizing and belittling of Obama and those of us who support his candidacy. I get it, he's a flawed person. As opposed to,say, Bill and Hillary. Give us all a break and treat both candidates with respect. I've been voting for Democrats my whole life (often times holding my nose). I know as much about policy and politics as many so-called experts. So stop treating those of us who maybe want to move beyond Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton as though we're all naive sheep.

==========MARTIN RESPONDS==========

"naive sheep" ?

Thou hast said it...

==============================

[Herrington]

I suggest you save the cartoon characterizations for the general election. You are forgetting that your audience is the 49% of Americans the rest of the world considers to be the smart ones.

[NYC07]

If this is an example of the innovation and originality a Non - Obama Presidency would bring, Let's all pray. If Obama loses we'll all need help.

[DeeLuzon]

your ever-increasing hostility hardly recommends you or your candidate to those of us who might still be uncommitted (thanks, john edwards; it was swell while it lasted). you seem to prove your opposition's argument that the style their candidate exhibits would, in fact, be far more effective in convincing lots more people (from the rich who would be taxed to the masses who would be required to their change their lives to conserve energy) to make those inevitably necessary sacrifices that solving any (let alone all) of the excruciatingly complicated challenges ahead demand.

reading just one more contribution from you before tuesday should seal the deal for my vote.

==============MARTIN RESPONDS=========

MY candidate is the Democratic Party. I am sworn to fight equally hard for either Obama or Clinton in the General Election. Just as I did for Gore and Kerry. (Would that Bob Shrum had fought as hard or been as smart as so many of those who fought). My sole mission in the primary season is to provoke people to think before they vote. Sometimes a forlorn notion...

================================

[boonagain]

Wow, the desperation is palpable, isn't it?

You guys can do better than this